Newsletter of the Internal Staff Association (ISA) March 2016 (2)

At a BLRF meeting on 10 March 2016, a number of issues regarding the payment of the salary scale adjustments were clarified.

1. Staff who received incorrect payments in November, i.e. underpayment of the 50% back pay of the salary scale, as well as those who received nothing but were due for an adjustment, will now receive their correct back pay at the end of April 2016.
2. The second 50% payment, which was due for payment in June 2016, will be brought forward and also paid in April 2016. So, the Phase I corrections and the Phase II payments are being merged in April.
3. The above has a positive spin-off for those staff who were overpaid in November. The overpayment should, in most cases, be set off against the Phase II 50% payment. In cases where the initial overpayment was so big that the staff member still owes after implementation of the Phase II 50% payment, an affordable repayment schedule will be negotiated with the staff member by HR.
4. In our last newsletter, it was explained that core staff (technicians, technologists, medical scientists, laboratory managers and supervisors, lab support managers and supervisors,  phlebotomists and phlebotomy technicians) in the A-C grades will migrate to the new General and Management pay scales on their existing grades. However, there are two exceptions: the Medical Technologist Principal level (which is equivalent to C3) and Medical Technologist Expert level (equivalent to C4) WILL NOT migrate to the General and Management scales; their pay scales will remain as set out in the Pay Scale document dated 01/12/15.
5. All core staff will be moving to their new scales in April.
6. All staff who receive an adjustment, will receive a letter explaining the new scale and salary.
7. There are 636 (275 in the General category and 361 in the Core category) staff who are not affected by any of the above and will therefore not receive any adjustment as they are already within the newly approved ranges.

D band salary adjustments

According to management, the new D band salary scales will be implemented by no later than July 2016.

Proficiency assessment adjustments

The proficiency assessment process will commence this month. As it is a complex process,  involving the development of various assessment tools, and submission, consultation and approval of various internal committees and the Board, the project will take a year and implementation should take place in April 2017.